TNRTB Archive - Retained for reference information
Because life emerged rapidly in Earth’s history, some naturalists have appealed to a Martian origin of life. Such an appeal is based partly on the assumption that Mars provides a 700-million-year time window for the origin of life before the transfer of such life to Earth through meteoritic transport. Paul Davies argues that from a naturalistic perspective a Martian origin of life is decisively favored over either a terrestrial or an extrasolar origin of life. However, for a variety of reasons (see Origins of Life by Fuz Rana and Hugh Ross) the assumption proves false as the time window for life’s origin on Mars is even briefer than it is for Earth (less than a few million years). Therefore, for even an extreme optimist a naturalistic explanation for life’s origin becomes untenable.
P. C. W. Davies, “Does Life’s Rapid Appearance Imply a Martian Origin?” Astrobiology, 3 (2003), pp. 673-679.
http://taddeo.ingentaselect.com/vl=1049745/cl=26/nw=1/rpsv/cw/ma;/15311074/v3n4/s3/p673
RTB books: The Creator and the Cosmos, 3rd edition
